Carter's (almost) 20 Month Update

Technically, our little man won't turn 20 months until September 29th, but I'm going to post an update while I'm on a blogging streak. Here's some tidbits of our life lately...

The highchair is packed away. For about a month, Carter has been sitting in his new big boy booster seat!

He has finally adjusted to Mother's Day Out, which is a huge relief to me! Last week, he walked right in with a smile on his face. When we picked him up from the church nursery last weekend, he didn't want to leave!

Trying out his bubble lawn mower.

This quickly became his favorite toy of the week. He requested to use the lawn mower every day.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, we all eat breakfast together. He takes part of the paper and pretends to read it (with complete seriousness).

He likes to play the piano. And he doesn't just bang the keys. He actually tries to use all his fingers. I'm hoping he'll have some type of musical talent.

Some cute sayings:
"kiss?" - If he's leaving or going to bed, he'll ask for a kiss (which he returns as a hug). One day on our way out the door, he said, "Bye bye Jack Jack.....kiss?" He then walked over to our dog Jackson and bent his head down to Jackson's head. So sweet!
"Dude" - His Aunt JuJu taught him to say dude. But he drags it out like "Du-u-u-u-u-u-de" while cocking his head to the side.
"Ah-ash" - What he calls his teacher, Ms. Ashley
"wuv you" - His version of "I love you."

You read all the time about toddlers' brains being like sponges, but I had NO IDEA how much Carter was absorbing! When reading books together, I can stop in the middle of a sentence and he'll fill in the missing word. Yesterday, I caught him going through books and reading to himself. Not really reading...but definitely stating key words from the story, and some before he even got to the picture to remind him what was coming. What did I learn from this? I really need to watch what I say in front of him. There's no telling what he might pick up and repeat!

He periodically becomes attached to a particular object. For a while it was his lamb, then a play milk bottle, then his calculator. Now, it's a book called If Jesus Came to My House. It's a sweet book I had as a child. And the funny thing is that the illustrations are only in black and red on white pages. Carter tucks the book under his arm and carries it everywhere.

Carter is very much into ROUTINE. For instance, if we're leaving, he'll say, "Purse, gate (which we put up to keep Jackson in the kitchen), keys..." When we're heading to school, he'll request his backpack. When I told him one morning that we were heading to church, he said "Bible?" He knows what we take with us whenever we go somewhere, and he knows the steps we take as we leave. Prior to every meal, he requests his bib and a plate.

He's also very organized...likes putting things in their place. (But the boy can make quite a mess too!) One day, Carter picked up my shoes in the hallway and placed them up on the foyer table.

He's into his letters (well, 4 of them) and colors. When we are on the highway last week, he shouted "A" and "O" at the top of his lungs. Sure enough, a truck passed us with "Arnold" on the side. For awhile, he just knew the color yellow. But now he recognizes purple, blue, red, green, and orange. This has proven a bit of a problem when he opens a bag of fruit snacks and one of those colors is missing. Today, he held out his hands and said "Yellow?? Yellow??!!"" as if to say "how dare there not be yellow one in this bunch?"

I have to say that this last month or so has been somewhat easier than a few months ago when he was constantly testing me. He's been pretty obedient lately, and I can't remember the last time I popped him. Actually, a stern glare from his mama will now put a stop to bad behavior. But I'm not naive. I know the terrible 2's are lurking around the corner. And note that I said easier...not easy.

Those are some highlights for now. More to come soon.